Match Reports

Derbyshire v Nottinghamshire at Derby on 5th July: Friends Life t20: North Division

On a beautifully hot, sunny evening, the County Ground had a rare sellout for the visit of their neighbouring rivals from Trent Bridge. The visitors won the toss and chose to field first. Derbyshire had a bad start as they lost two wickets for nine runs in the first 2.1 overs.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Wayne Madsen effected a recovery of sorts, but, once Chanderpaul had gone at the end of the third over, further progress was a problem.

Madsen played some brave shots, but was run out by a direct hit by wicket-keeper Chris Read at the bowler’s end. Four more wickets fell all too quickly so the score had slumped to 84 for eight. Although David Wainwright and Tim Groenewald added a further 24 for the ninth wicket, Derbyshire’s final score of 115 for nine was never likely to present Nottinghamshire with much of a challenge.

The pitch was slower than expected, and it is likely that Derbyshire made the mistake of seeking to score too many runs for the conditions. A final score of about 140 might well have made life quite difficult for the visitors.

Provided that there was no loss of early wickets, Nottinghamshire would be able to pace their innings comfortably. Alex Hales and Michael Lumb put on 42 before Wainwright took two wickets in two balls to raise Derbyshire hopes for a short while, but James Taylor joined Lumb and together they added a comfortable fifty at a run a ball.

A run out brought the end of Lumb’s innings on 49, and Wainwright dismissed Taylor with only thirteen more runs needed. It had soon become clear that the slower bowlers were more difficult to get away for runs, so Madsen used four slow bowlers while only two of his four seamers were used for two overs each.

David Hussey and Samit Patel, two members of one of the strongest batting line-ups in the competition, saw their team home with fifteen balls remaining. Nottinghamshire thus maintained their unbeaten record, while Derbyshire lost theirs. Derbyshire’s next t20 match will be played at Old Trafford on Friday, and this will be followed by two more home matches on successive Sundays at Chesterfield.